Their logic is to do whatever is necessary in order to get him home. I argued in return that a temporary fix is just cheating and will be problematic in the long run. Whatever they do to get him to gain weight should be something we can and will continue to do when he comes home. There's no sense taking the dramatic step of completely changing his diet for two or three days, just for us to revert it once he comes home and have him then stop gaining weight. With us living on one income, a specialty, high-cal formula is not something we can sustain at home. It will also do nothing to reduce the 100+ bottles of pumped milk crowding our freezer.
Thus began a back and forth about my diet. The question, "are you eating right?" came up over and over. I suspect this is because I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight already. I've always had the metabolism of a hummingbird. But, I could see how it might seem to them like I'm on a crash diet. In doing some reading on how what I eat becomes what Alex eats, alterations in my diet can indeed have some small affect on his caloric intake. I pledge to eat more fish and nuts. And although it won't help him as much, I pledge to eat a lot of chocolate cake.
Other than that, we've agreed that a simple fix would be to dump what is called the fore milk and feed Alex the higher-fat hind milk. If the terms are not self-explanatory enough, the further into a pump or feed you go, the more fat there is in the milk. Chocolate cake...
Helen and I battled with the nurses over formula, too. They want whatever's expedient, no matter what your plan. It was a very frustrating experience, especially since it's common knowledge that breast milk is best for baby. We had to fight the night and weekend nurses tooth and nail to breast feed while Charlie was jaundiced.
ReplyDeleteAaron didn't gain weight on breastmilk either so I combined it with high calorie formula (a half and half type of situation until he made it over 8 pounds and he then was gaining on his own and didn't need the formula. I know, formula advice from a nurse, but also a nurse who had two preemies and had the same issue only 6 months ago..."food" for thought! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteJust want to post say for the record that all of the nurses and doctors at Pennsy have been adamantly PRO breast milk the entire time we've been there. This recent push towards using formula was just one proposal to help AO gain more weight. Everybody is working with us to get him home quickly and healthily and eating (mostly) mother's milk! Thanks Sara and the gang!
ReplyDelete